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Mourning Becomes The Book Maven
October 4, 2007
As a young maven I performed classical music. A teacher once said to me before a concert: "You look exceptionally good in black." That may no longer be true (age doth make bright-color-wearers of us all), but in my soul I still look exceptionally good in black -- the traditional Western color of mourning.
Thank goodness, since I, along with Ronan McDonald, am grieving The Death of the Critic. (He's chairing a panel about it today at the ICA in London, which I urge you to visit while there; fantastic bookstore!) McDonald writes in The Guardian:
"The bloggers and reading groups often claim that they would rather get recommendations from someone they know, someone with similar tastes. One problem with this is that the public are relying on a reviewing system that confirms and assuages their prejudices rather than challenges them. An able and experienced critic, with sufficient authority, could once persuade readers to give unfamiliar work a second chance, to see things they did not see at first glance. In that respect, critics can be the harbingers of the new."
As McDonald goes on to point out, if we only listen to those who share our own likes and dislikes, we risk banality and uniformity. (I refer everybody to Curtis White's The Middle Mind for a lively, cogent, and righteously angry argument against this banality and uniformity.)
Don't get me wrong -- all of us need people who do share our tastes, too. First, that's one reason why I'm here -- to say "I loved this book, and I hope some of you will, too." But we all need people who don't share our tastes at all, too. I cherish both the friend who insisted I at least read one issue of The National Review and the friend who introduced me to Kathy Acker. While I don't read either Buckley or Acker any more, both ends of the spectrum helped me refine what I do love to read, what I do think about writing, and in some crucial ways, what I believe about art, life, and how to live.
Real critics push us to read things we wouldn't normally read, to see things we wouldn't have seen on our own, and to be aware of ideas we wouldn't normally consider. We shouldn't revile critics as elitists or outsiders; we should welcome them into discourse (or let them keep their distance, if they so prefer). We just can't forget about them and allow them to die out.
Remember, it's Banned Books Week -- and there's more than one way to ban a book. Sure, the stories we hear about all the time are about parents with strong beliefs about religion, sex, etc.; but what about books that never get read because everyone is busy reading the latest Oprah pick? I for one want to keep hearing about as many different kinds of books as possible.
Besides, I really do look better in something other than mourning clothes; green is my new black.
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on October 4, 2007 | Comments (5)
